Interview with popular FanDuel TV presenter set to visit prestigious meeting with Gulfstream Park scorer, who represents her father Patrick in the Queen Mary Stakes
When you build a perception of someone you have seen on TV, it’s not always reflective of that person in real life. Enter Andie Biancone – as refreshing and warm via phone as she appears to those watching her on US racing channel FanDuel.
As far as broadcasting goes, Biancone (right), 28, is something of a sensation, having first picked up a mic in 2020. Since then, she’s become popular for the way in which she explains areas of the sport which are often shrouded in jargon. Above all, her love of horses shines through.
June 2025 will see Biancone make her Royal Ascot debut, but not on screen. She will be the groom and exercise rider for Lennilu, who heads to the G2 Queen Mary after her impressive win in the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies – an Ascot qualifier held at Gulfstream Park in May.
“I’m just so happy I don’t have to pick out five dresses!” she says. “I’m going as a groom and I’ll be walking Lennilu in the ring.”
Unbeaten in two starts, Lennilu is trained by Biancone’s father, dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe-winning trainer Patrick, best known for the exploits of superstar turf mare All Along, who became US Horse of the Year in 1983.
The Frenchman has been US-based for more than two decades after a stint in Hong Kong, where Andie was born. She moved to the US when she was three and has been an ever-present on racetracks since.
“Technically, Louisville is home, but I travel so much for FanDuel,” she says. This past winter I basically followed all the Derby preps and was on a rotation of two weeks Florida, New Orleans and Arkansas.
“My Dad trains year-round in South Florida, so I’m very active in his barn when I’m there. I used to be his assistant full time but now just get on horses for him and when he has horses to run outside Florida he sends them to me.”
Family trip
The UK visit will be “like a little family trip” – a joint venture between Biancone and her sister, Tattersalls employee Marie [Biancone-Harris] who lives in Newmarket and will oversee Lennilu’s care while she is based there. It is probably Andie, though, who
is most familiar with the filly.
“When she came from the farm in early March she was one of my regular rides and I took her to Keeneland where she broke her maiden”, says the rider, whose boyfriend is Eclipse Award-winning apprentice Keith Asmussen.
“Everything you ask her, she does it with ease. She breaks quickly from the gate and she’s just a professional. I know that the day she leaves an oat there’s a problem.
“She just walks into the paddock on a lead rope, no lip chord, and she’s like “hey, I’m here, let’s do this! I’ve travelled so many horses for Dad and none have travelled better than her.”
Luis Saez, flying high thanks to his recent Kentucky Oaks success, will be on board for Ascot. “He knows her really well,” continues Biancone. “He was on her for her first work from the gate and I was on their company, so I got a good view of their butts! He loves her and even before Keeneland he said she would win.”
Such a bubbly passion for horses which comes across well on camera, but that aspect of Biancone’s career happened in difficult circumstances.
“It’s crazy – I never imagined myself broadcasting,” she explains. “My Dad and I moved to Florida from California 10 years ago. I was riding out for him and going to community college and broke in two-year-olds for a year.
Boutique operation
“Then my dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer when we had two horses on the Derby trail,” she goes on. “We have a boutique operation with maximum 30 horses, so to have two on the trail was crazy. I had to drop out of school and become his assistant full-time to help.
“Because he was sick I was travelling with these horses and one day I just did interviews on the horses, including [multiple graded stakes winner] Diamond Oops and that’s when FanDuel [then TVG] reached out to me. I gave it a whirl and now I have health insurance!”
While TV combined with riding – “the best of both worlds” – is very much her here and now, training is in her DNA.
“My Dad always prepared me to be a trainer and I always imagined myself training,” she says. “He would pull me out of school when I was 11 years old to work all the sales and really worked on training my eye, which has helped me so much in my career. I have a really good memory for horses, not so much people.”
Back-to-back Arc wins
Biancone wasn’t born when her father trained back-to-back Arc winners with All Along and Sagace, in 1983 and 1984. He also trained Triptych, winner of the 1987 Irish Champion Stakes and 1988 Coronation Cup.
“I was totally born in the wrong time; I always laugh about that!” says Biancone, whose mother is Elaine Biancone, a former Miss Hong Kong. As a result, she speaks Cantonese and returns to Hong Kong each year to visit her grandmother.
“My Dad is my best friend, we’re super close,” she continues. “He’s done such a great job with Lennilu. He loves her like a pet. He sits in the corner of the barn in his chair and ruffles the candy wrapper and every lap the horse gets candies.
“His horsemanship speaks volumes. I’ve had the opportunity to gallop for a lot of different trainers, like Norm [Casse] and Steve [Asmussen] but he brings a European perspective. He can get into their minds and think of things that maybe others wouldn’t.”
That, too, is his daughter’s strength – the ability to connect with horses. She won’t be letting the social side of Royal Ascot distract her from that.
“I’m going to be completely focussed on the horse – I’m so boring,” she laughs. “But there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. Riding horses and then going and talking about horses – that’s exactly my ideal day.”
• Visit the Gulfstream Park website and the Royal Ascot website
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